Venture Concept No. 1

Opportunity: Sports is a growing entity in America and as more and more individuals start playing sports and fans become more involved in the game, people will need a place to et all the information possible. Parents of high school children need a place where they can get the scores of their children’s games. These same parents will also enjoy collegiate and professional sports. The kids that are taking part in the sports will want to have the ability to see how the sports teams they are playing against in the following week did during the previous week.  All of these individuals want to have a single place to go to get all of this information. What else do these people want, to have the ability to watch all of the collegiate and professional games on the go. Sports have very strange hours and at times people can’t be at home or at a sports bar watching. Having all the games on a single app that you can tune in and watch at any time will ease this for everyone. The window of this opportunity could technically be year round because there are always sports occurring.

Innovation: Create an app that encompasses all of the previous stated aspects. From including all high school sports scores, college and professional sports scores and statistics of players along with a live feed of the games.

Venture: I have created an app that allows individuals to see the scores and statistics of collegiate and professional sports and remote high school sports. There will be no live feed but there are the basic rules and positions for the sports to help teach individuals about the games.

Secret Sauce: My secret sauce that it will make it difficult for competitors to copy me is that before I launch I am going to have people working in the remote high school areas in order for all scores to be up to date and that way there is never a period where a specific area does not have the high school scores for the area. This also shows that I do not believe a specific area for sports is better than any other.

What’s Next: Obviously getting television rights to air the collegiate and professional sports games will be nearly impossible, the next thing I hope to make for the venture is writing books about how to play a sport, the rules of the sports, and the positions. I think this will broaden my consumer base to people that may want to get involved in sports but feels too uncomfortable to ask people about sports.

What’s Next For Me: In the future I would hope that I would remain the CEO of the venture but also work with sports marketing for a specific team.

Week 11 Reading Reflection

What stood out to me the most during the reading was about how the failure of innovation is usually due to the innovation strategy is lacking. I usually thought that it was due to innovations not be executed properly but to learn that it goes all the way back to the strategy used when innovating was very interesting. 

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Something that confused me was that sometimes you don't understand the innovation strategy when working with a company when  you see the "big picture" but when you look at it more closely that's when you see it. I feel that working with a company you should automatically be able to see the innovation strategy no matter what. 

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Do you think there is a way for a business to be successful without an innovation strategy? 

If every company has a good innovation strategy what will happen in the future? 

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There was nothing that I believed the author was wrong about.

Amazon Whisperer

The revenue drivers for my current business of SSN (Sports Statistics Now) as an app for smartphones are individuals that enjoy sports at all levels and are interested in getting the scores and statistics of players and teams on the go at a single app. This app will make money through advertising fees from companies that will want to advertise on the app to the individuals. The next thing that SSN can create is a book that explains the rules and positions of sports. The book will begin with football because that is the biggest sport in America. The way SSN will make this different than other products is by marketing and writing towards a younger and female audience. Many sports products focus more towards the male generation because sports tend to be liked by males more. As a twenty-one year old female I will be writing and editing the book to ensure that my generation is able to understand and learn from the book.
This is the product that I found is similar to the one I am making:

This book I believe is at a good price range but the cover immediately would turn people that may not know much about football away. I want the book I create to be more bright and more creative to get females to want to pick it up/buy it and read it. Almost all of the reviews on this book discuss how Chris, the author, has an amazing way at discussing football and teaching the rules and regulations of the game. The reason that writing a book would enhance my app is that after people download my app, if they do not understand the sports, I will be able to direct them to a book to teach them. I will begin by creating books of the most popular books and hope that by the end to have a book for every sport.

My Unfair Advantage

-Financial Capital (31)
-Human Capital (33)
-Social Capital (31)
-Brand (30)
-Knowledge of all levels of sports - including high school, collegiate, and professional (39)
-Marketing Capital (36)
-Graphic Elements (33)
-Organization (35)
-Technological Elements (32)
-Teaching Elements (38)

For the VRIN I did a number 1-10 for each of the elements and then added the 4 numbers together to create a VRIN number. A larger number means a better VRIN.
Valuable- Definitely needed for SSN in order to prosper in the market
Rare- Does this resource make SSN different from other sports apps that are currently on the market
Inimitable- Will other sports apps be able to copy these resources, making SSN not the top leader
Non-substitutable- Currently there are no other apps that are able to offer high school, collegiate and professional sports

My top resource is the knowledge of all levels of sports that the app will be able to posses. There is currently no app or website, that I know of, that informs people of the scores for high school, collegiate and professional sports. Having the ability to do this will really put SSN over the edge. Not only will SSN be providing the scores for each of these sports, we will also be providing the basic rules and positions of the sports. That will be giving consumers all the information they may possibly need about a specific sport.

Week 10 Reading Reflection

Honestly, after taking financial accounting at UF there was nothing that really stood out to me in this chapter. It gave the basic financial information for starting up a business and the money needed to truly make a revenue but nothing was out of the ordinary or something that I felt should be different. 

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Again, after taking financial accounting at UF I did not really think anything was confusing in this chapter. Because I have taken an entire class on this type of information I knew what to expect. If I hadn't taken the class I probably would have been confused on the balance sheet information since that confused me most during financial accounting. 

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Do you think fixed costs or variable costs are more important, for example, if an entrepreneur could cut back on either which do you think they should allocate more money towards? 

How would you create a budget for an app that would be free to download? 

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I did not think the author was wrong about anything 

Growing My Social Capital

1) Or Oz- A current student here at the University of Florida majoring in Computer Engineering and specifically working with app design and website design/management. 

2) He is filling the domain expert slot. Due to his vast experience with creating apps on smartphones he understand the importance of the design in attracting customers. 

3) My friend is a computer engineering major and gave me the information for Or when I was discussing this assignment. 

4) I was able to meet with Or on campus in-between classes. He talked to me about the importance of the design of the app and ensuring that I had someone that knew what they were doing in order for the app to meet the maximum potential. At the end of the meeting I told him if I was actually creating the app I would definitely use him. He informed me when he creates apps he has a special logo he puts in it so people know it was his creation. 

5) Or will help me benefit from my opportunity because he has experience in the field and understands what needs to be done for everything to work smoothly and allow customers to get the full benefit from the app 

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1) Andy Howard and he is the director of marketing for RecSports

2) Andy is filling the market expert slot. Being the Director of marketing for RecSports he understands what it takes to reach your target audience. As technology improves, college marketing is changing which is something that my app will also have to go through in order to remain important. 

3) As an operations associate for RecSports, all the professional staff are encouraging of asking for their help and I decided to contact him when I read about this assignment. 

4) After one of my shifts I went into Andy's office to discuss the importance of marketing to college students that are interested in an active lifestyle. He gave me a lot of tips on how to change the marketing strategy based on the age that I was aiming to market towards. At the end of the discussion he told me if I ever had any other questions to come to him and he thought it was a great idea. 

5) Including Andy gave me a lot of insight I didn't already know about the sports marketing industry. 

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1) Tamarah Strauss is a University of Florida alumni that now works in New York with BZA PR. 

2) Tamarah is filling the supplier slot. As a PR executive for sports, she is working with ESPN, SportsCenter, etc. about their websites and promoting specific players/sports. She understands the importance of getting every sport equal opportunity. 

3) As a UF alumni, my friend's older sister was able to put me into contact with her. 

4) One day I called Tamarah and she was able to answer almost every question I had and did not expect anything in return. She was happy to help because she understood that in college you often have assignments that need you to meet new people. 

5) Tamarah gave me a lot of insight on what sports are being covered fully and which ones aren't and gave me ideas of how to interests the consumers for the sports that are not being covered as much. 

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REFLECTION: 
This experience really opened my eyes. It gave me a lot of information I did not already know and it showed me that some sports may already have apps for this and that to be successful I may need to market towards the sports that are not getting as much internet space. I think it was really helpful. 

Elevator Pitch No. 3

The feedback that I received on the last elevator pitch helped me realize that I need to add something to my app that will make it more different than the ESPN apps and google. I have decided to add an element to the app that under the specific sport that you choose, it will then give you an easy version of the rules, positions, and calls that are often made during the game. This will make it that the app is also being designed for individuals that may not know a lot about the sport.

My Secret Sauce

- Independent: I am an independent person that feel comfortable doing stuff on their own and also with friends. While I am independent, I do not get scared to ask people for help when I may be too busy to do stuff on my own.
- Creative: I love being creative and thinking of possibilities and solutions in different ways then others. I like to think that I can turn a boring night into a fun night for anyone. I love just chilling with my friends and we often come up with funny stories and games to play even when we are just having a chill night in.
- Honest: I like to keep stuff real with everyone. I feel that if you feel a certain way you should let people know, to an extent. I am not honest to the point that I am rude, but I feel that their are times when voicing your opinion is necessary. In high school I would have been scared to be honest and voice my opinion but through college I have realized how important it truly is.
- Hardworking: School has always come first for me and then my other responsibilities follow. If I decide to apply for a job, volunteer with an organization, or help a friend I make sure that I get it done. I am very hardworking with all aspects of my life.
- Compassionate: I care for almost anyone that I meet. If I have come into contact with someone and created a friendship I love keeping in touch and making sure everything is okay with that person. Whenever I get into fights with my friends I like to resolve them immediately because I can not handle it when people are mad at me.
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All the answers I received from my friends were what I expected. I am a very hardworking person but also understand that at times friends come first and I need to help them out. I love having a close group of friends that understand what I need to do. I know some of my friends understand my humor but sometimes I wish that all of my friends understood when I was trying to be funny. Overall, I think my friends think I am a great person. 

Week 9 Reading Reflection

Something that stood out to me in this reading was the importance of internet marketing and all of the details that go into internet marketing. The small details about other Ads that are on the website, the font, the design of the website, the photos, etc. are all such minor details that truly affect the total reputation of the company.
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Something that confused me was the Marketing Information System. I do not truly understand what they do and why they are totally needed. I feel that a lot of their jobs could be done by computers.
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What do you think is the most important aspect to a website for marketing purposes?
If you can only get one form of data, do you think primary or secondary would be better?
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I did not think that Kuratko was incorrect with anything in the chapter!

Idea Napkin No. 2

1) I am Leigha Hinds and I am a junior at the University of Florida doing a combined Master's and Bachelor's degree in Sports Management. I aspire to work for the marketing department of a professional football or basketball team in the future. With this business adventure I want to give sporting fans what they have always hoped and dreamed for; a place to have scores of all sporting events from high school to professional.


2) I am creating an app called SSN (Scores, Statistics, Now) for consumers that are huge sporting fans. At the beginning of this venture I want to locate it in just the United States. I hope for the app to offer an on the go, push of the button, way for fans to get scores and statistics of their favorite teams and players at the high school, collegiate, and professional level. 

3) I am offering this to huge sports fans that have smartphones. While the demographic of sports fans tends to lean more towards males, the app is accessible for females and males. It would be giving the statistics of professional and collegiate athletes along with the scores of high school, collegiate and professional teams. It overall can be used by anyone that is a sports fan. 

4) Customers that are true sports fans and tired of having to google or go to multiple websites to find out this information will have a much easier way to get all the sporting information they have ever hoped for. 

5) At the beginning of the app I will only be following collegiate and professional athletes and teams. As the app gets more use and I am able to obtain staff in all parts of the country I will then move to adding high school sports. As time progresses, I hope to then bring the app international. 

I believe that all of these elements fit well together. A true sports fan will find all of this information to be beneficial that it is all at the click of a single app. I feel that in the long run when I have the capability of having high school and international sports, I will truly be differentiated from ESPN and Bleacher Report. 

The top five things I received from feedback that I put into this idea napkin were: 
-obtaining regional staff to help with high school sports
-moving to international sports after a while 
-not being super focused on statistics of high school athletes 
-showing that involving high school sports will differentiate me from ESPN and Bleacher Report
-making it more known that this app can be the single spot for all information, eliminating the need to google and check multiple websites for information on sports